At present, wireless local area networks (WLANs) such as WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) networks, which are seen as a simple and inexpensive wireless access technology, have been widely deployed as a supplement to cellular networks to alleviate data service load on the cellular networks, and have become popular among users. However, a limited capability of access control by WiFi networks introduces a high likelihood of non-guaranteed communication quality between the WiFi networks and access terminals.
In the prior art, a maximum load of a network access point on WiFi networks is introduced to address the challenge in guaranteeing communication quality between WiFi networks and access terminals. Specifically, a terminal is allowed to access a WiFi network through a network access point only when a current load of the network access point is less than the maximum load and an access request signal carrying a first signal of the terminal can be correctly demodulated. When the current load is less than the maximum load, an access request signal sent by a terminal distant from the network access point can also be correctly demodulated. In this case, a communication rate of the terminal is very low, which introduces a high probability of a reduction in spectral efficiency of the whole network access point.